Painting by Averil Conwell Averil Conwell painted Guy Bickford, former Whiteface Inn superintendent of grounds, into her 1952 mural, “Sugaring in Lake Placid.” He’s driving the two oxen, holding a whip.

(Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the April 4, 1997 issue of the Lake Placid News. It was written by current LPN Editor Andy Flynn when he was the News staff writer.)

LAKE PLACID — Every year, thousands of people walk by Averil Conwell’s 1952 painting entitled “Maple Sugaring in Lake Placid.” It’s located at the top of the stairs in the Lake Placid Convention Center, adjacent to the 1932 Olympic Ice Rink.

Some people rush through the arena entrance and don’t pay much attention to Conwell’s picture. Some people look at it and say, “Hmm, that’s nice.” But others look more closely, at the people tapping the maple sugar trees and carrying the pails full of sap.

When Lake Placid native David Bickford looks at the painting, he says, “There’s my father.”

Bickford, who’s in his late 70s, knows Conwell’s painting well. It was moved to the Convention Center in 1982 from the former Whiteface Inn, where he worked for 38 years. Bickford and his father, Guy, worked side by side in the construction department on the Whiteface Inn property, building most of the structures there.

Whiteface Inn owner Henry Haynes sits with his dog, Prince.

In Conwell’s painting, Guy Bickford is the one driving the oxen with a whip. Guy, who worked and lived at the Whiteface Inn property for decades starting in 1930, was the superintendent of grounds at the resort when “Maple Sugaring in Lake Placid” was painted. He was a close friend with Whiteface Inn owner Henry Haynes.

“Haynes used to call him his right-hand man,” David Bickford recalled.

Haynes, himself, is in the painting; he’s the one sitting on the tree stump next to his dog, Prince.

In order to paint Haynes, Prince and Bickford into the maple sugaring scene, Conwell had to photograph them first. David Bickford’s son, Tom, still has Conwell’s pictures of his grandfather, who is posed with his hand up in the air. Conwell later added the whip when she made the painting.

Tom Bickford, who moved to Tupper Lake in the late 1970s with his family, continues a family tradition by operating his own construction business. His son, Todd, also works beside him.

Scene from Averil Conwell's painting, "Sugaring in Lake Placid"

Conwell had actually painted four other portraits at Haynes’ request for the Whiteface Inn dining room. Bickford remembers one being of a railroad station scene, one with airplanes and another with hikers on a mountain.

“In fact, I put the frames on them myself,” Bickford said.

During some interior decorating at the Whiteface Inn dining room, David Bickford remembers having to move “Maple Sugaring in Lake Placid” to a different place on the wall. That required several employees and some tricky maneuvering to lift the canvas painting off the wall and carry it across the room.

“We thought it would crack the paint (if we weren’t careful),” Bickford said.

That wouldn’t be the last time the painting was moved. Although the Whiteface Inn was remodeled and used to house several major Olympic sponsors and organizations during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, the property faced bankruptcy, according to Lake Placid/North Elba Historian Mary MacKenzie. And in 1981, it was announced that the Whiteface Inn property would be auctioned off.

A local group of 15 donors raised enough money to purchase one of the paintings, “Maple Sugaring in Lake Placid,” and they donated it to the town of North Elba, which owns the Olympic Center property. Bickford believes the other portraits are currently in a Glens Falls restaurant.

In 1982, the maple sugaring painting was placed on the wall of the Convention Center, and in a news report, Conwell said she was happy it’s in a place where the public can see it. Out of all the Whiteface Inn paintings, “Maple Sugaring in Lake Placid” was Conwell’s favorite, according to MacKenzie.

Conwell, a renowned artist who lived in Upper Jay and Lake Placid for many years, has left behind a legacy of Adirondack art. Her paintings of the former Stevens House hotel adorn the first floor offices of the North Elba Town Hall. And the Mirror Lake Inn features several of her paintings in its dining room, which appropriately is named the Averil Conwell Dining Room. Conwell was 94 years old when she painted new murals for the Mirror Lake Inn after the originals were damaged in a fire that destroyed the hotel’s main building on Jan. 10, 1988. Conwell died on July 17, 1990, at the age of 96.